Return of the Jinchuuriki
by YZYdragon2222
Summary: After years of running away from pain and loneliness and chasing after peace, happiness, friendship, and love, Gaara feels as if he has finally been able to leave his past behind and catch up to the present as the beloved Kazekage. However, when an old friend reasserts himself in Gaara's life, will he become trapped in the past and lose everything he ever worked so hard for?
1. The Sand Spirit

Author's Note: I hereby commence my second story. I'll be working on this and "Identity of Love and Sand" at the same time. I hope those of you who appreciate Gaara will appreciate my efforts. Shikadai will appear in the story but with a much lesser role. Naruto will have a much more prominent role in this story than the other one; however, understand that what he and Gaara share is simply pure friendship.

This story contains much more angst and slightly disturbing themes than the other one. Don't start screaming at me when things get intense.  


I hope to make new friends and enemies in the reviews section. Let me know what you think, and what needs cleaning up, suggestions, etc. If you can't help but praise me nonstop, I don't mind that either.

Welcome to the mysterious landscape that is the inside of Gaara's mind.

 **Chapter 1—The Sand Spirit**

Few are able to appreciate the vast Wind Country. There are varying perspectives of it for those who have visited it, but most of those views touch upon the desert's bare, arid features, its blistering days and freezing nights, the less than ideal survival conditions, and the sand in every direction, which mocks man and his weakness as he is tortured to death in a sandy prison thousands of miles wide, until he becomes nothing more than swirling grains in a sandstorm.

Sabaku no Gaara could well understand these sentiments. Unlike the lush forests of the Fire Country, whose dangers were well concealed from the naked eye by its towering trees, colorful flowers, and chirping birds and other small wildlife, the Wind Country landscape was bare and uniform, and its perils were blatantly obvious to any one who encountered it.

Nevertheless, Gaara couldn't help but love the desert. Konoha forests were beautiful on the outside, but those who were experienced knew of its hazards. Suna deserts seemed treacherous on the outside, but those who were experienced, like Gaara, could appreciate its beauty. To him, the sand was an ocean of gold that met boldly with the striking, cloudless blue desert sky in an impressive 360-degree horizon. The brilliant sun radiated its light upon the infinite grains of sand, turning them into sparkling hues of silver, bronze, purples, blue, red, and yellows.

The desert's beauty lay in its self-preservation, as well: if the trees of a Fire Country forest were knocked down, it would take years for them to regrow and return to their original state, if ever. On the other hand, one could dig away at the desert sands for an eternity, and nothing would really ever change. Change, in itself, was a part of the desert's eternity, as the sand dunes were constantly shifted under the influence of the wind.

To Gaara, the desert was home.

Gaara was a child of the desert. However, the title was not unique to him: after all, Kankuro was also a child of the desert, Temari was a child of the desert, Baki was a child of the desert; hell, Matsuri and Sari were children of the desert, everyone in the whole _Wind Country_ were children of the desert.

But it was obvious that the one who led all of them as the Kazekage was not just a child of the desert. He was the desert itself.

That statement was true in so many ways. Yes, Gaara was indeed human, that had long ago been established—but sometimes it seemed like he was the reincarnation of the desert in human form. He was distant, and mysterious, like the desert. His communication was straightforward—like the desert. His power was enormous and unrelenting—like the desert. His outer facade revealed none of what went on inside of him—like the desert. He was desert's the shifting sand itself—quite literally: anyone from all Five Great Shinobi Nations could tell that Gaara didn't really control the sand, since people didn't really "control" their appendages. Sand was simply an extension of Gaara's physical form. It was sometimes whispered that the sand itself was his true physical form, and his human appearance was just a charade he put on in the presence of others.

Gaara was a like a sand spirit.

 _I thought it was Shukaku who was the sand spirit?_ Gaara thought. In his brain, he sighed, although his emotionless mask of a face showed none of this. _I spent so many years proving that I was not the demon that I contained within me. Yet, after so many years, even after the real sand spirit has been ripped from my body, we are still the same. Simply poor creatures attempting to survive in this unforgiving environment by becoming one with it._

Gaara's thoughts may have seemed dark, but this was Gaara after all, so these contemplations could be considered bright compared to the many shadows lurking inside his head.

Imagine his thoughts when he was in a bad mood.

Unreadable as it was from his facial expression and body language, Gaara was actually in a rather good mood at the moment. He was soaring across his home country on his Desert Suspension, Kankuro and Baki on either side of him on sand platforms of their own. They were travelling back to Sunagakure from Konohagakure, and what normally would have been a three-day journey was reduced to half a day on Gaara's jutsu, not to mention that sandstorms, nature's frequent inhibitor of shinobi traveling through Wind Country, could be quelled by a mere flick of Gaara's fingers.

Nothing aided Gaara's spirits like seeing his elder sister Temari again, as well as his brother-in-law Shikamaru and his nephew Shikadai. He felt more at home in Konohagakure than in any other village other than his own, since he was rather well acquainted with most of the Hokage's friends, and of course, the Hokage himself.

It had been a rather productive Five Kage summit this time, although as of late, the Five Kage gatherings had been rather relaxed in nature, more frequent, and more akin to friendly gatherings than political meetings. All the Kage were on first-name bases—except for Lord Kazekage, of course. Kurotsuchi, Darui, and Chojuro insisted that they exercise proper respect towards Gaara alone, since he had become a Kazekage as the youngest Kage in history, had been his village's leader for longer than any of them, had been their Regimental Commander under whom they had all fought during the 4th Great Shinobi War, and was the only who had fought along all of their predecessors as a Kage during the war. "Besides, you were the only young brat who managed to gain a point on Gramps during all his long life, Lord Kazekage!" Kurotsuchi had argued humorously.

 _"When did all of you...forsake yourselves?"_

True as those things were, Gaara doubted that they were only reasons the current Tsuchikage, Raikage, and Mizukage were adamant to call him "Lord Kazekage", and not "Gaara".

After all, the Hokage was the hero of the war and they called him "idiot".

To be honest, Gaara didn't care the least bit about titles, only the underlying meanings behind them. Temari and Kankuro sometimes called him "baby bro", and if the four other Kages desired to call him that, then so be it. If they couldn't bring themselves to get comfortable enough around him to call him by his first name, that was fine too. Gaara had long ago accepted that despite no longer being a Jinchuuriki, he would never be the same as everyone else; he would always be different, and while he may be on good terms with humanity he would never be a part of them.

Besides, he did have Naruto Uzumaki, and to hear him say Gaara's name, not only as an equal, but as a friend: that was enough.

* * *

The Kazekage sat reclined in the large chair in his office. He and his two companions had arrived back to Sunagakure several hours before, and were met at the tall Suna walls with no small amount of fanfare from shinobi and civilians alike all too eager to welcome their Kazekage home. They were people who once hated him and whom he had hated, and now, they couldn't get enough of him, and he returned the sentiment. Of course, to the villagers, that meant that they wanted to get their hands all over him. To the redhead himself, it meant he would willingly give his everything to protect them, and he wouldn't Sand Coffin them when they squealed "Lord Gaara!" or were standing fifty feet within his presence.

Naruto Uzumaki had taught Gaara about acceptance and giving people chances. That was why he was now the Kazekage, with no grudge and feeling nothing but fondness for the village and people who once hurt him. After all, he himself had been given a chance by the loud blonde-haired shinobi, and that was why he could now die the adored Kazekage rather than the hated, unloved, disgusting monster of a psychopath. _Everyone deserves a chance._

Gaara looked through the window on the sandy office wall, looking out for the village he had lived for, protected, died for, and returned for. He felt all the more like a sand spirit, discreetly watching over those who needed him.

It was summer, and the sun set late in the desert at this time of year; after its brilliant trek through the desert's un-obscured sky through the long day, the sun had put up its most brilliant performance and consumed the sky in a dazzling orange wildfire before it was consumed by night itself.

The noise and activity within the village died down as the sun slowly lost its battle to darkness, and after a bustling, busy day, Sunagakure blinked its sleepy eyes and closed them to go to rest. A large, glowing white orb hovered over the dying embers of the fire in the sky.

 _A full moon._

Gaara wouldn't be sleeping tonight.

Years ago, a full moon marked the peak of Shukaku's insanity and would consume Gaara almost certainly and entirely in bloodlust and rage just like the way darkness consumed the sky. In the past, Sunagakure would never grow sleepy on full moons, unable to shut its eyes, paralyzed in fear that if it did, they would never open again because of a certain sand demon.

Now that Sunagakure was blessed with a protective sand spirit, it dreamed of peace on a full moon's night.

Peace was something that Gaara had no concern for in the past. If anything, he was chaos and peace was what he actively sought to destroy. He never imagined having peace like he did now, and not even in his wildest dreams did he think that he would be the one _ensuring_ peace.

Part of the reason for that was that Gaara never slept as a Jinchuuriki. Insomnia chased dreams away, even if his life had been an interminable nightmare. His fateful fight with Naruto was his violent shake-awake, and the removal of Shukaku finally allowed him to venture into the world of dreams that every other human being escaped to during the night.

Despite that, habits are formed when one is young, and staying awake for 24 hours was a trait Gaara had not developed but was born with. Needless to say, Gaara's rest nowadays took the form of him meditating with his eyes closed (at least, they were closed most of the time), and a few hours of shallow sleep every few days. Unlike others, whose bodies automatically rested and replenished itself during sleep, Gaara deliberately controlled his breathing and unsharpened his senses to become at equilibrium with his surroundings and achieve the thing called "rest".

It was a sweet blessing compared to what he had before.

Moving at a slow pace, Gaara got up from his desk and began to move to the floor, sitting cross-legged and facing the window. The circular window was a perfect frame for the glowing full moon, and Gaara basked himself in the lunar light. Whereas in the past the full moon amplified Gaara's instability, it now seemed to seep tranquil energy into his very veins in a manner difficult to describe.

Breathing deeply and concentrating on controlling his heart rate to a restful pace, Gaara slowly closed his eyes, watching full moon grow smaller and smaller in his vision field until it was but a sliver of bright white light—

 _Lub-dub._

A surge of unease started from the pit of his stomach and coursed throughout his body like a jolt of electricity. Black-rimmed eyes snapped open and fell upon the sight of the moon, which, seconds earlier, had seemed so calming, and now looked like a haunted relic of the past.

 _Lub-dub. Lub-dub. Lub-dub._

Gaara clutched his chest in mild panic. _Okay. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in—_

His breath caught in his throat as it constricted, and Gaara found himself forcing air in and out of his lungs.

What was the cause of this sudden restlessness? If Gaara knew anything, he knew that his senses were extremely sharp and accurate, even if his brain hadn't yet registered the source yet. However, the feeling of forebode that was growing parasitically inside him, pumping anxiety through his body with every beat of his heart, was a feeling he hadn't felt since long ago.

And long ago was something no one ever wanted to experience again.

 _Lub-dub. Lub-dub. LUB-DUB._

The Kazekage who never lost his composure paced around the room. The room itself was growing smaller and smaller. It was threatening to crush him, to trap him in one of his own Sand Coffins, and he couldn't do anything about it. Then after he was gone, Sunagakure, without the blessings of its sand spirit, would perish by a sandstorm itself, and everything he had ever loved would be gone, _gone_ , no trace left except for the blood in the sandy rain—

 _LUB-DUB. LUB-DUB. LUB-DUB!_

Gaara was running. No, escaping. But he was escaping from it in an inescapable circle around his accursed round office.

But escaping from what? From what?!

He clawed at his blood-red hair, threatening to pull out handfuls of it by the roots. His unfocused eyes settled on the moon, and he saw an unblinking, mocking eye peering at him with a blood-chilling gaze. Promising blood. Promising pain.

A small part of his stable consciousness looked down at the writhing redheaded figure.

 _Who is that?_

 _..._

 _That's me! What's happening to me?_

That small part of Gaara's consciousness forced itself into the dark, rumbling chaos of Gaara's brain, and with the small amount of sanity he had left he summoned a Sand Eye to seek the cause of the pandemonium in his desert just outside Sunagakure's walls.

His Sand Eye had only just blinked upon, when its gaze landed upon... **it**.

 **It** gazed straight back into Gaara's Sand Eye. Only one as audacious as **it** could look the Kazekage in the eye with that kind of expression.

Then the deafening roar shattered the last, lingering remnant of peace.

And Sunagakure woke up with a scream.


	2. Chapter 2: Desert Versus The Desert

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: In exchange for a long wait I give you a chapter about 3 times as long as the previous one. This is not a chapter to be taken lightly! Quite a lot of inner and outer battles going on here...including the one that went on in my own head trying to write this damn thing.**

 **Gaara's Magnet Release "sparkling metallic sand" is from Gaara Hiden, just so you know. Therefore, I consider it canon.**

 **I will try to update again as soon as possible. Give me about a week to turn a jumble of thoughts in my head into a brilliant Chapter 3.**

Chapter 2: Desert Versus The Desert

Deserts have two sides, and sand spirits have two faces.

One is the calm side of the desert, the cool, collected face of the sand spirit.

The side of the desert where the sun casts a warm glow on the golden sand dunes, the sand shifting subtly under pleasant drafts of cool wind, the sky clear and a soft blue...the face of the sand spirit that is levelheaded and logical, even-tempered and unwavering, and fiercely loyal to the people it protects.

 _That was Gaara._

Gaara had assumed that he was the equivalent of the desert, and Sunagakure's sand spirit. But he'd forgotten the other half...

The other is the violent side of the desert, the twisted, unhinged face of the sand spirit.

The side of the desert where life is either literally sucked away by the dry heat and blindingly and stiflingly blistering sun, or is torn to bloody shreds by furious, inescapable, unrelenting sandstorms. The face of the sand spirit that is maniacal and psychopathic, demented and bipolar, and tremendously loathing all living things other than itself.

 _That was_ _ **Shukaku.**_

The two halves completed each other with a past of hate and bonds of pain, and now, after years of separation, their doomed reunion had finally begun.

When Shukaku saw the green eye of sand configure right before him, he released an unbridled, wild roar, but not one of rage.

It was a roar of anticipation, to see, for the first time in years, a certain redheaded Suna shinobi he today had come so far for.

It took about five seconds for Gaara to teleport himself in a swirl of sand to the location of the One-Tailed Tanuki.

There wouldn't be one single human being or one single shinobi in the entire world, who would say that Gaara arriving from his office in Sunagakure to the middle of the desert miles away from Sunagakure's outer walls in a matter of _five seconds_ wasn't an extremely impressive feet. Or even a miracle. In their view, he'd have completely re-defined the meaning of "long-range fighter".

But Shukaku wasn't a shinobi or even a human being. At this point, it wasn't even the fact that he was a tailed beast that made him come to a realization: it was because of the fact that he himself was the other half of the desert.

To Shukaku, the five seconds that it'd taken Gaara to arrive was five seconds _too long_. Living with an automatic sand defense since birth had taught Gaara to have nearly automatic reflexes as well. It'd taken Gaara five full seconds to arrive—that meant five full seconds to _regain his composure_.

Which meant he'd lost his composure in the first place.

Shukaku took great pride in the fact that he'd been able to unnerve the apparently emotionless, detached, fearless and stone-faced Kazekage, before the actual confrontation itself.

When Gaara did swirl into existence as expected, Shukaku was in for an even bigger treat. The Kazekage stood in the full glory of his infamous pose; feet standing shoulder-width apart on his Desert Suspension, back straight as a board with the humongous gourd strapped across it, arms crossed proudly in front of his chest, and the pale face under that shock of blood red hair cold, expressionless, and unreadable to any other human being.

But Shukaku wasn't a human, but a monster who'd lived inside Gaara's head and was the one Gaara'd desperately called "Mother", and the one whose sick demands and urges Gaara succumbed himself to. He looked into Gaara's tanuki-like eyes, which were yet another reminder of how similar they were, and saw beyond the stoic facade puzzlement, anger, and best of all, fear.

Shukaku felt himself filling to the brim and overflowing with a sick satisfaction that he'd been able to do this much to Gaara in a matter of seconds and no words at all. He made no hesitation in voicing this, either.

"GYAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shukaku howled, throwing his beastly head back in a fit of ecstasy. Even after the matter failed to amuse to him anymore, he continued shrieking into the desert night, unwilling to let the sound of his own hellish voice die away.

The desert's fiery fury was interrupted by its own cold, sharp wind. What interrupted Shukaku's mad laughing fit was just as cold and sharp as the cutting desert wind at night. "Shukaku," Gaara intoned.

It seemed that as much as Shukaku was able to affect Gaara, Gaara was able to return the effect to Shukaku as well. The One-Tailed Beast actually shivered slightly at the sound of his own name spoken with Gaara's inflectionless yet icy tone.

The beast swallowed its laughter, which resulted in a savage growling sound tearing from his throat. Shukaku acknowledged Gaara, eye to eye, soundlessly and in a split second of deceiving calmness.

Then fell into a fit of raging laughter once again.

The place between where Gaara's eyebrows would have been was tightly knit. It was a subtle facial expression, but for Gaara, it was practically a loud declaration of confusion and displeasure.

Shukaku finally reined in his laughter, and, throwing a feral glare with his yellow and black eyes at Gaara, wordlessly challenged the redhead to speak.

Gaara simply stood there, arms crossed, robes fluttering about his unnervingly still form. He didn't blink, he didn't budge. It was questionable he even breathed. An eternity passed before taut lips moved a centimeter to speak in a raspy low voice that somehow still resonated clearly through the night.

"What are you doing here?"

The words themselves were extremely uninteresting, bland, and predictable, but to Shukaku, nothing that came out of Gaara's mouth was uninteresting. In fact, every sound, every _movement_ Gaara made something powerful rise up in Shukaku's chest. He wasn't even sure what it was, but it lit the fuse so quickly that the only reaction Shukaku was aware of was the explosion he felt inside him.

"OIIIII! What's wrong with going anywhere to meet an _old friend_? And is that really how you greet an old friend like me, my esteemed self _Shukaku_ ,? Who do you think you are, you, you BRAT!" A truly cruel smirk crept up Shukaku's jagged lips. _"Mother taught you better."_

The flinch that flashed across Gaara's eyes was only there for a fraction of a second, but was clearly visible.

"And here I was so excited to see my _old friend_. How severely disappointed I am in him! It's been years, you know, and I simply wanted to catch up on the _good_ old days! Will _Mother_ have to punish the rude little boy like before? I'm sure you remember, don't you—Hahahahahahahahaha! Hahahaha! I guess I—"

"I never said anything was wrong with meeting an old friend, but you were the one to imply it. However, you know as well as I do that we are not friends, Shukaku, and that I find no joy in meeting you again, whether in a few years or in a millennium," Gaara said, his hoarse voice sounding even hoarser than before. The slight crack and wavering of his voice indicated his distress, but other than that, it was colder than ever. Waves of pain seemed to radiate from his eyes, however. "We may have come to terms years ago in a time of need, but friendly bonds are not something we share, then, or now. _And you know it._ "

"HMPH! You insolent brat! But then perhaps it is because I am bored. I live to kill and for years I've roamed the earth with no silly little unloved brat to torture. I've come back to you now, so entertain my esteemed self!"

Silence ensued for a moment as Gaara shut his eyes, shielding his pale green eyes from Shukaku's view with black lids. A moment passed and although Shukaku could think he wanted to yell at Gaara, he had already been captured by the spell of Gaara's hypnotizing presence and every scream died before it reached his throat.

Torturously slowly, black lids lifted to reveal to glassy sea-foam green orbs. The knit of frustration between them was gone. Any trace of emotion had been sucked away from them, and in their place were hollow, empty tunnels. Devoid of expression. Dead.

"I am the Kazekage of the Sand and you have wasted enough of my time today. I don't know what you're up to, but I can positively say that as the protector of this village I do not welcome it. State your purpose, and leave."

Shukaku had always loved inflicting pain on others. Their strangled screams were music to his ears, spilt blood the sweetest smell, and the light of life slowly draining away from the eyes of the dying—to him, that was the most beautiful sight.

But with Gaara's every callous, uncaring, emotionless word, Shukaku could feel a sharp sword pierce through his entire being. This was pain—more than Shukaku's riled mind could comprehend—and he didn't like it one bit.

And after a few moments, Shukaku simply, utterly, and completely—

 _Lost it._

"DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM, BOY? HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN ME ALREADY, YOU DAMNED BRAT! I AM SHUKAKU, THE ONE-TAILED BEAST AND THE GREAT TANUKI OF THE DESERT! THE DESERT! THIS ENTIRE BLASTED, UNHOLY DESERT BELONGS TO ME AND YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SAY WHERE OR WHEN I AM WELCOME! THIS DESERT IS KINGDOM AND MY ESTEEMED SELF WELCOMES MYSELF. THERE IS NO PLACE MY ESTEEMED SELF IS NOT WELCOME. EVERY GRAIN OF THIS SAND IS IN MY POWER AND I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT TO IT AND GO WHEREVER I WANT ON IT. EVEN IF THAT MEANS SUNAGAKURE, THAT SHITTY VILLAGE YOU CALL YOURSELF THE ALMIGHTY KAZEKAGE OF. I DON'T GIVE A _FUCK_! AT ALL!

"YOU CALL YOURSELF THE PROTECTOR OF THE VILLAGE BUT IT IS WITH THE STOLEN POWERS OF MY ESTEEMED SELF THAT YOU DO SO! WHO DO YOU HAVE TO THANK FOR THAT STUPID SAND OF YOURS? IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE _MY_ SAND MANIPULATION, DO YOU REALLY THINK THOSE ASSHOLES BACK IN SUNAGAKURE WOULD GIVE A FLYING _FUCK_ ABOUT YOU? HUH? THEY STICK TO YOU LIKE LEECHES BECAUSE YOU'RE POWERFUL. IF YOU'D LOST YOUR POWERS WHEN YOU WERE SEPARATED FROM ME, WOULD YOU STILL BE KAZEKAGE? WOULD YOU STILL BE _LOVED_? FORGET IT, NOBODY HAS OR EVER WILL LOVE YOU. IT IS THEIR SELFISHNESS THAT CAUSES THEM TO STICK TO YOU, NOT THEIR _LOVE_."

Gaara's eyes flitted down towards his own chest for a millisecond. He knew it wasn't bleeding, but his heart was hurting a lot. Although he had experienced it for countless years as a child, it was still unpleasant. And the fact that Gaara believed, deep down, that Shukaku's words were absolutely true, rubbed salt onto the injury inside his chest.

"YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE SOME STRANGER! IT IS MY POWER THAT PROTECTS SUNAGAKURE NOW AND YOU SPEAK TO ME LIKE SOME UNWELCOME STRANGER! THAT MAKES ME HATE YOU! THAT MAKES ME LOATHE YOU MORE THAN YOU CAN POSSIBLY IMAGINE! THAT MAKES ME WANT TO RIP YOU APART AND RAIN YOUR BRAINS AND BLOOD ALL OVER YOUR PRECIOUS VILLAGE!

"TALKING TO YOU IS LIKE TALKING TO A WALL! YOUR STUPID NONCHALANT VOICE MAKES ME SICK! YOUR EMOTIONLESSNESS MAKES ME SICK! THAT IMPASSIVE FACE—MAKES ME SICK! COME ON, TALK TO _MOTHER_ LIKE YOU USED TO, BOY! I KNOW THAT INDIFFERENCE OF YOURS IS JUST AN ACT! IT'S ALL FAKE! SHOW ME THE MONSTER THAT'S HIDING BEHIND THAT SICK WALL FACADE OF YOURS, GAARA! I KNOW IT'S THERE! SPEAK UP; SAY SOMETHING! GET RID OF THAT SICK, FAKE INDIFFERENCE OF YOURS AND SAY SOMETHING TO SHOW ME WHAT YOU'RE REALLY FEELING!"

Gaara was silent.

"NOOOOO! JUST SHUT UP, YOU BRAT, JUST SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP! I NO LONGER WANT YOUR ACCURSED VOICE TO REACH THE EARS OF MY ESTEEMED SELF! I WAS LEFT TO WANDER THE WORLD IN FREEDOM AND ROAMED THIS DESERT FOR YEARS WITHOUT YOU, YET THAT ACCURSED VOICE OF YOURS CONTINUED TO IMPRISON ME! I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE OF YOU BRAT AND YET YOU'VE FOLLOWED ME EVERYWHERE AND I CAN'T ESCAPE. MY ESTEEMED SELF IS THE GREAT SHUKAKU, ONE-TAILED BEAST AND DESERT TANUKI, AND YET I'M TRAPPED—I'M TRAPPED BY YOUUUUU! WHEN I SEE THE STARS IN THE COLD DESERT NIGHT I SEE YOUR COLD JUDGING EYES JUDGING ME! AND WHEN I HEAR THE MURMURING DESERT WIND AT NIGHT ALL I HEAR IS YOUR INDIFFERENT, UNLOVING VOICE, ALWAYS PREACHING ABOUT FRIENDSHIP THIS, FRIENDSHIP THAT, _LOVE_ THIS, _LOVE_ THAT—"

"YOU HAVE MADE ME YOUR PREY AND THAT IS UNACCEPTABLE! MY ESTEEMED SELF SHUKAKU REFUSES TO BECOME PREY TO THE LIKES OF SCUM LIKE YOU! AND TO EXPUNGE THIS ABOMINATION I MUST MAKE YOU MINE! I MUST MAKE YOU MY PREYYYYY!"

At this moment, it was clear as the desert sky. Put the two faces of the sand spirit together, and you get a demon. Put the two sides of the desert together, and you get _hell_.

* * *

Nightmares are meant to be wakened _from_ , but tonight was like wakening _to_ one.

The streets of Sunagakure were more crowded and noisier than a festival night. The village, however, had been rudely awoken from its slumber by no festival. The streets were dark as a grave, and the air hung over its people like a ghost.

It was several miles away from the village's outer walls, but because of the desert's flatness, they could see, quite clearly, a great sphere of rapidly moving sand seemingly have a battle with itself. Zipping about the sand in the great sphere was a small speck that could be made out to be the Kazekage they loved. But the clouds of sand sometimes made way to reveal something much larger and much more nightmarish underneath. Something from a nightmare that had repeated itself too many times in the past. Sunagakure thought they had been cured of the hellish dream, but right before their eyes, there it was.

Gathered on the balcony of the Kazekage Office was a small but significant crowd of Suna jounin, ANBU, and council members. At the forefront of them was a brown-haired puppet master whose face, for once, lacked its trademark purple paint. Having been woken in the dead of night to such a spectacle, he'd promptly ignored all requirements of his formal shinobi attire.

Kankuro and the man beside him, Baki, were reliving a different, but equally horrible, nightmare, as they watched their brother and student, respectively, fight the impossible battle to protect their village.

 _Long blonde hair and a black cloak imprinted with red clouds flurried in the wind on the back of a threatening, great white bird high above the village. One of the sleeves of the Akatsuki's cloak was torn and tattered at the upper arm, with blood dripping from the stump._

 _Despite having had his arm crushed to oblivion by a giant arm of sand, Deidara's intended spoils of the fight were too high a price for Sunagakure._

 _Something frail and maroon fell from the sky, and before it could reach the safety of its village below, the white bird swooped down and curled around its tail around its form, imprisoning it midair._

 _Kankuro, Baki and the rest of Sunagakure stood petrified in the village that had just miraculously survived unscathed from a bomb powerful enough to have easily obliterated it into nothing more than a scorch mark in the sand. They watched in despair as the enemy flew away with the one who had put his life on the line to protect them._

 _The Kazekage's brother and his fellow shinobi were completely helpless against the enemy too far away to reach and too powerful to fight, and the Kazekage was taken over the walls and into the sky, to his death._

"Gaara!" Kankuro cried, his agonized tone accurately describing a thousand words of misery.

"Gaara..." Baki whispered, almost to himself. "Not again...this time, you can't lose."

A couple of people behind them stood a crowd of Gaara's young, fervent admirers. There was a reason these people were the ones the Kazekage put his hopes and trust in for the future of the village. Behind their seemingly silly fangirl/fanboy air headedness was determination of steel and resolve of pure love and loyalty.

One of the longest-time members of the "fan club", as Kankuro had dubbed them, voiced her support first. "Lord Gaara is powerful and strong!" Matsuri exclaimed, effectively rallying the crowd beside her. "He is our Kazekage and we have to put our trust in him like always! Even from afar, we're here to support you, Lord Gaara!"

"Go, Lord Gaara! We believe in you!" Sari gushed wholeheartedly.

"Lord Gaara will be just fine!" Ittetsu assured himself and his friends. "This time, he won't...he won't be defeated!"

Yukata continued equally as enthusiastically, "We can put our trust in Lord Gaara! He will definitely protect this village and keep it safe!"

Despite the situation, the fond yet honest words sparked cheers to erupt from the small crowd.

Kankuro would have been touched by the display of devotion if he had not felt a strong and growing sense of fear and hostility bourgeoning from somewhere amidst the gathering.

"I don't think we should trust him so easily."

The cheers cut off abruptly and turned into murmurs of puzzlement. Kankuro and Baki, hardly able to believe their ears, snapped their heads around to regard the offending party, an ANBU Black Ops, but Matsuri beat them to it.

"What in the world do you think you're saying, that we shouldn't trust Lord Gaara?! Have you forgotten who he is?"

"That's exactly what I haven't forgotten," piped up a jounin with a bitter tone to his voice. "Lord Gaara is the former One-Tail jinchuuriki. He may be powerful and the most suitable opponent for this...for Shukaku, but this is much more than a battle of skills."

"That's true," continued an elder council member. "This is, in a very literal sense, Lord Gaara's battle with his inner demon. We all know that when he battled with Shukaku within himself as a child, he turned out to be a _failure_. He submitted to Shukaku's rage and bloodlust and became the bane of our existence! We must consider the possibility that will happen again. He may very well lose his resolve when faced with the source of his former psychopathy."

 _Senile old man!_ Kankuro thought furiously. To think that with all of Gaara's efforts over the years, there were still those who treated and spoke of him like he was nothing but a tool that had failed its purpose. Kankuro would have gladly wiped out all such members of the council from their positions, if not for Gaara's insistence that, "Everyone deserves a second chance." Kankuro could not believe this was the way some people were using the second chance Gaara had given them.

"He may have hidden it well by becoming Kazekage, but inside, Lord Gaara has never been anything more than a pure evil, ruthless, cold-blooded murderer."

All reason was taken from Kankuro's mind at the sound of those cruel words. He would have have yelled, if the crowd on the Kazekage Office balcony hadn't reacted the same way, seeing as chaos had broken loose among the shinobi.

"How can you say something like that about Lord Gaara! Take it back! You should take it back!"

"You know it's true. Have you forgotten how many of our own shinobi's blood taints his sand?"

"You know that Lord Gaara's changed! He's protected all of us before!"

"His having changed doesn't mean anything in regard to what's already happened! Besides, how do you know it's not all just a facade?"

"He's fighting the Shukaku now, isn't he? If that's not protecting the village, what is?"

"Shukaku is the demon that resided inside Lord Gaara since even before birth! How could he feel anything more for us than it does for the monster? For all we know, he could be conspiring with Shukaku! He planned this attack all along to satisfy his bloodlust after all that time of gaining our trust!"

"That's not—"

"All of you, just SHUT UP!" Kankuro exploded, unable to contain himself any longer. Furiously, he turned his attention back on the whirling sand battle happening just outside Sunagakure. The unjustified arguments of the shinobi behind him, however, refused to leave his head.

 _Gaara..._

* * *

"WIND RELEASE: DRILLING AIR BULLETS!" Shukaku bellowed, releasing rapid-fire torrents of wind from his powerful stomach. Gaara maneuvered swiftly around Shukaku's relentless wind attacks from the air, causing the air bullets to hit the desert behind him each time he made a breakneck turn and cause geyser-like eruptions in the sand. He zipped about at a speed to fast to nail an attack on— _like an annoying fly buzzing around my head that's so hard to hit! I have to SQUASH it!_

"What are you doing, Shukaku? Your actions at the moment are completely irrational! What is the reason for this?" Gaara was actually shouting, both to be heard over the tornadoes of sand and to convey his turbulent emotions. Shukaku tried to hit him again, but it was impossible when Gaara was zooming around so rapidly, becoming nothing more than a blur in his vision field.

Shukaku responded by ignoring all of the posed questions. "My esteemed self has noted that your speed has improved greatly, you pest! I can't get a hit on you when you're flying around so quickly!"

"Avoiding getting hit is my intention," Gaara deadpanned. "Incorporating Wind Release with my sand manipulation has the potential to increase its speed nearly tenfold. However, I can't help but notice you've diverted from the subject. Why are you avoiding my questions?" _There's something obviously off about Shukaku, but I can't put my finger on it…_

"Why should I answer to YOU? Are you trying to INTERROGATE me?" Shukaku growled, frustrated that Gaara had again disappeared from his vision field. He shook his beastly head from side to side, catching nothing but the desert's sandy color and a mop of crimson at the corner of his eye—" _There you are, PEST!_ "

Shukaku directed his heavy tail in a gigantic sweep, creating a gust of air that blew away all the sand in the surrounding area that resulted in a deep crater-like impression in the desert, at the center of which was Shukaku. Gaara ttempted to speed away but was unable to avoid the large range of the tanuki's tail. Shukaku watched in glee as the Kazekage took the full force of a direct hit from the most enormous tail of all the Tailed Beasts.

"GYAHAHAHAHAHA!" Shukaku roared at the tiny human still dangling limply from his tail, "I've GOT YOU NOW—"

"Sand Coffin!"

The limp "corpse" suddenly sprung up and twisted itself into a giant arm of sand that grasped Shukaku's tail tightly.

"A sand clone?" Shukaku gasped.

Using the beast's surprise as an advantage, Gaara proceeded to swirl a massive amount of sand around it in its moment of distraction. "Grand Sand Mausoleum—"

With another giant sweep of his tail, Shukaku flung off the sand clinging to his body and tail, deepening the sand crater they were situated in even further. The sand landed up to several miles away with a _thud_.

"I know you're not stupid, Gaara! I'm MADE of sand! You can't possibly defeat me with my own sand!" _However, sand is also HIS element and I can't beat HIM with sand either! This is getting frustrating…! What I should do?_

 _…_

 _Wait…_

Gaara's blood suddenly ran cold as a look of deadly calm suddenly reached Shukaku's eyes.

"Hehehehehe…HAHAHAHAHAHA! Now Gaara, I don't actually have to land a hit on _you_ to win, do I…?

"I know of another way to defeat you…"

Gaara paled. "What do you—"

"TAILED BEAST BOMB!" Shukaku hollered, a gigantic ball of chakra gathering at his jagged mouth.

Gaara's faced was completely drained of blood as the huge purple mass flew through the air, causing a giant cloud of sand and dust to erupt in its trail. It whizzed directly past him, causing his hair and robes to fly about him wildly—

 _And barreled directly towards his beloved village of Sunagakure._

* * *

 _BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM_

The only comprehensible things at the moment were the earsplitting explosion ricocheting violently off one's eardrums, and the gigantic plume of sand that had reached the sky and spanned quite a few miles in radius.

After several minutes, the echoes of the Tailed Beast Bomb's detonation diminished into an eerie silence, and the flying sand settled to linger in the air like an oppressing dust fog.

Shukaku stood tensely in the spot that had but a few minutes ago been the epicenter of all chaos. He kept his eyes unblinkingly pried at where Sunagakure should have been. He had always wondered what the ruins of the village he detested would look like.

Growing impatient of the sand that had settled in the air and was currently blocking his line of vision to whatever Sunagakure had become, Shukaku flicked his tail, and the sand, sensing his command, immediately fell softly to the ground, leaving the coast clear for him survey whatever damage had been done to the city. Shukaku searched hungrily with his eyes for the delicious sight of destruction, only to find—

 _A shiny dome covering of the entire village of Sunagakure._

The rampage of thoughts bouncing unrestrainedly inside Shukaku's head was cut off abruptly by a crude voice. "The power of manipulating sand that derives from the One-Tailed Beast," here, pale foam green eyes flicked at Shukaku's direction, "is famous for its absolute defense. You yourself claimed that I inherited my powers directly from you, so you cannot expect that the sand defense for one whose motto is absolute defense would fail. In essence, you used your strongest spear against your shield, and in the end, your shield was stronger. However, that is not the only factor that determined the failure of your attack.

"It has been years since I have been free of you, and in the time of our separation I have far surpassed you. Using my Magnet Release, I create shields out of a sparkling metallic sand that increases the their durability by several times. Any attack is doomed to fail against it.

"In addition, there is something that I have that is ultimately more powerful than any attack you can come up with. The love I hold for my village...and my desire to protect them, can never be beat. That's what I've learned from my _mother_ , not you, Shukaku, but the woman named Karura inside whom you were imprisoned for first nine months of my development and the last nine months of her life _._ "

Shukaku looked down at the desert floor beneath him, and found it shining brilliantly under the unfiltered moonlight. The sparkling metallic sand slowly started to swirl and surround him, pressing down and constricting along his huge, sandy form.

"This metallic sand is several times denser and heavier than normal sand. The shield of sand I used to protect Sunagakure from such a great distance was taxing even on my abundant chakra reserves. However, what I have left of it and this special sand is more than enough to stop you. Ultimately, your defeat lies entirely in your underestimation of my powers."

The sparkling sand almost covered Shukaku's entire form by now, making it seem as if he were glowing. It revolved around the tanuki's body, slowly shaping itself into the shape of a familiar giant sand pyramid.

Gaara half expected Shukaku to thrash about wildly and scream profanities in attempt to free himself and save his pride. He expected for it to be very difficult to subdue Shukaku. He expected the beast to put up a great fight.

Instead, Shukaku visibly slumped in defeat, lowering the head that he normally carried so proudly on his broad shoulders. A low chuckling sound rumbled from his stomach, but it seemed that all the energy and frenzy from earlier had been drained from it. "No, Gaara...I didn't underestimate you. In fact, this is just what I expected of you after all. Hmmmmm..."

The sand continued forming a pyramid around Shukaku. Gaara furrowed his brow once more, and asked in a quiet, almost whispering voice, "Then why did you come to fight an unnecessary battle?"

Gaara's faltered slightly when he received only silence as a response from the normally fiery beast. Shukaku's sandy form was almost entirely invisible by now, trapped inside the shining sand structure. Taking a deep breath, Gaara took one last look at the last uncovered part of Shukaku's body, and found himself staring—

 _At himself._

Gaara saw diamond-shaped black and yellow eye filled with years of pain and hatred. Filled with exhaustion from years of unjustified lack of acceptance from others. Filled with hatred for a world in which it couldn't see its way out of the darkness.

 _An eye filled with loneliness._

At that very moment, time stopped.

* * *

When Sunagakure was almost completely destroyed by an explosion for the second time in its history, it could only watch with panicking, wide eyes as the huge purple ball ripped through the air towards it, only seconds away from wiping its existence from the face of the earth, decomposing the very molecules that held up the sandy walls until the only trace of Sunagakure left on the world was a pile of ash in the Wind Country desert.

The probability of survival diminishes for every second that an attack draws nearer, and the rapidly moving bomb seemed to move through the air in slow motion as it approached the village, and only its very final second and the disappearance of the last ray of disbelief and hope did Sunagakure finally witness an amazing phenomenon. Within a fraction of a second, entire sky painted a new canvas for itself, turning into a massive expanse of shining sand, and while the _BOOOOOM_ that was the death of the village could be heard resonating clearly throughout it, it was otherwise completely unseen and unfelt, and Sunagakure looked down at itself, very much alive.

For the first few seconds of its miraculous survival, Sunagakure was as quiet as it would have been in death. For those moments, the village wondered if perhaps the color of death was not black after all, but this shiny metallic color. Only when shining metal painting the sky began to recede and the normal midnight blue had returned, did Sungakure realize that for the second time it had cheated death.

Roars of approval for the Kazekage who had saved them too many times from the eager grips of death sounded throughout the village. The spectators watched all too eagerly as the giant beast several miles away from their village became wrapped inside a swirling mass of metal sand.

"That's Lord Gaara!"

"Lord's Gaara done it! He's saved us and now he's going to put a stop to Shukaku!"

"This is all thanks to Lord Gaara!"

Kankuro heard the loud roars of the shinobi and civilians in the village that seemed to have sprung back to life, but most prominently, the pounding of his heart in his ears.

 _We all worried for nothing_ , he thought, still quite unable to believe it. _This just proves once again that Gaara's sand attacks and defenses are unbeatable. The village is safe after all...Gaara is safe after all..._

Sunagakure could barely wait any longer as the source of all its nightmares was seconds away from being put to sleep. They could see the beast slowly retracting from sight, disappearing within a sandy, inescapable trap.

Then, more quickly than anyone could register, the sand prison unfurled itself, and the monster of terror quickly appeared once more. There it was, standing in full glory with a shiny desert surrounding it.

Sunagakure hadn't been able to relish for long in its exclamations of ecstasy before all noise turned back into murmurs of confusion.

Kankuro watched, baffled, at the scene of the freed Tailed Beast before him. _What was going on?_

* * *

Shukaku had finally closed his eyes to embrace the imminent darkness he knew was to come, when he felt, for some unknown reason, the hands of the clock halt their journey. For the first time in his life, Shukaku opened his eyes, afraid of what he'd see on the other side. Would he something horrible? or even worse, would he be so enshrouded in darkness that he would see nothing at all?

When he cracked his eyes open, he immediately felt himself blinded by light surrounding him. _Why is it...so bright?_ he wondered.

Several seconds later, he finally registered his surroundings. Directly ahead of him was the glowing full moon, and at his feet was sparkling metallic sand, unmoving, harmless, and so calm that he could almost see his own reflection in it. Standing in the sand a few feet in front of him was a crimson-haired man in maroon robes, whose face had none of its usual expressionlessness, but was instead filled with serenity and wisdom.

"What—what...is this...?" Shukaku gasped, thoroughly confused. He felt himself in the unfamiliar position of a child before its parent. A tanuki child who just so happened to be a few hundred feet taller than his human parent.

A soft smile appeared on Gaara's face. "I am able to understand, you, Shukaku, because..." Gaara said, looking down at his own hand before lifting it and placing it over his heart, "we share the same pain."

 _"There's no need to distinguish between human and beast. That's because a friend of the heart provides peace of mind, no matter the species," said Bunpuku, from a place and time long, long ago._

 _"You are one strange bastard. There isn't ever going to be another human like you again," Shukaku replied._

 _"No... I think youre wrong. Human souls are like reflecting water. People often speak or act opposite of their true feelings. But essentially, the human heart wishes to connect with and accept each other. Even with beasts."_

Utter blankness filled Shukaku's mind for a split second before he felt the sudden urge to defend his pride.

But parents are always able to listen through the language of children to understand what they really mean to say.

"What would you know?" Shukaku began ranting. "You haven't been in my place for the past ten years, you're the oh-so-mighty Kazekage! You don't have any idea what it's like to apparently roam around with no destination!" _Can you understand my suffering? Do you know what it's been like to experience the past ten years of loneliness?_

"The other Tailed Beasts have found some kind of acceptance somewhere, and I'm not about to lose to that damned fox of Konohagakure, he's become some sort of hero there!" _I don't want to be the only one to suffer through loneliness anymore._

"Shukaku," Gaara finally interrupted. "You don't need to explain yourself. I know you've come here for my help. I would even say...you're looking for a place to call home.

"And you've come with a request, haven't you?"

Shukaku's large eyes stared at Gaara for a full minute, before smirking. "HMPH! You were always a bright one. So you understand, after all. So yes, I do have...a _request_ for you."

"I'm not surprised. What you're asking for is not something easily decided. You are essentially asking me of something that could potentially change the entire shinobi world."

"You can't say no!" Shukaku exploded. "I came all the way down here today...it wasn't just to hear you refuse! Sunagakure may be safe today, but if you turn away from me now...the same can't be said for tomorrow."

 _Please, don't leave me alone._

"I know," Gaara said.

Shukaku regarded Gaara a tinge suspiciously. "WELL? What's your answer?"

Gaara closed his eyes in contemplation. A spiky electric blonde mop of hair and energetic blue eyes filled his vision in his mind.

 _Everyone deserves a second chance._


	3. I Need You

**Author's Note:** How did a week turn into more than half a year? Well, my other story, "Identity of Love and Sand", suddenly started getting so popular that I invested all of my focus into that one. I suspect my involvement in LIFE was also a main factor—yes, I actually have one, you know.

It was thanks to the guest that reviewed on April 20 that I finally resolved to finish Chapter 3—which has been in progress since October, believe it or not. Thank you, guest! The rest of you…I suggest you follow his/her example!

Chapter 3—I Need You

"Why is it always Suna?" the man with a spiky, electric blonde mop of hair and energetic blue eyes complained, opening the letter in his hands.

 _Esteemed Kage:_

 _An S-Class situation has risen in Sunagakure that requires your immediate attention. I will be hosting a Five-Kage Summit in my own village in three days' time. Please make arrangements to attend, for the presence of each one of you is of utmost importance. Escort and accommodation within the village will be arranged._

 _Thank you._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Sabaku no Gaara, Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure_

Twenty years ago, Naruto remembered, Konohagakure had similarly received an S-class letter from the Sand. To this day, Naruto would never forget the way his heart had plummeted like the rocks of the Akatsuki cave had when Sakura punched it open on that mission. The sight of two fiends sitting on the corpse of his friend.

"Another S-class situation? What could be so important that Gaara needs to see us again?" The Kage Summit in Konoha had only ended _yesterday_. Naruto chuckled. "Gaara can't miss me that much _already_ , can he?" Naruto scratched his head, knowing the answer. _Yes, Gaara certainly could_. Naruto was Gaara's one true friend, and Naruto knew that Gaara probably felt the burden of their distance for every waking moment they spent apart.

For an insomniac like Gaara, that sure was a lot of waking moments.

Still, Gaara was the type of guy to rashly give in to his desire to see Naruto by demanding Five Kage Summits.

Naruto stopped chuckling and gave in to the predominant feeling slowly consuming him: _worry_.

 _It's been worse_ , Naruto told himself. _Gaara ain't dead this time—he's the one who wrote this letter!_

But Naruto looked down at the Fifth Kazekage's neat signature, and his heart sped up again with concern.

"Hey Shikamaru! Shikamaru! _Shikaaaaaa_ …"

"Gee, I heard you the first time, Naruto…" said man yawned from a corner of the Hokage Office, stashing away some documents.

"Come over here for a sec!"

"What do you want?"

"I got a letter from Gaara…"

This seemed to catch Shikamaru's attention—Gaara was a friend to Naruto but _family_ to Shikamaru. The Hokage's assistant turned and observed the troubled depths of normally cheerful blue eyes. The lazy man straightened and made his way over to Naruto. "What's it say?"

Naruto handed the document to Gaara's brother-in-law, watching as the Nara man's forehead crinkled as he read the paper bearing Gaara's neat handwriting. Shikamaru continued staring at the letter long after he had finished reading the simple words printed on it—simple words that could mean so much.

Without looking up, Shikamaru began slowly, "Gaara's a guy with a huge sense of responsibility. As Kazekage, he always wants to fix any problems within his village by himself. Most times, whenever there is a problem, Gaara's fixed it even before anyone's become aware of it. He does that because he doesn't want to cause harm and worry to the people he cares about, but…it really does drive Temari and Kankuro crazy sometimes. They wished he'd share, but…Gaara always wants to bear the burden by himself…"

Naruto grunted; that sounded like the Kazekage all right.

Shikamaru continued to analyze the situation. "So this—" he waved the letter around, "is really alarming. We just finished a Five Kage Summit yesterday and now Gaara wants all five Kage to congregate for another one because of an 'S-Class situation'? …Oh boy this sounds troublesome."

For once, Naruto couldn't help but agree.

Shikamaru put the letter down and closed his eyes in contemplation, dissecting the information out loud. "I s'pose there are only two things for which Gaara would want a Kage Summit at a time like this, of all times…either Sunagakure got attacked and is in such big trouble that he needs all of Five Kage to help protect it…or he wants to do something really scandalous or controversial and needs the Five Kages' approval. Since Gaara said the matter required the Kages' 'immediate attention', I would think that it's the latter, 'cuz otherwise, he'd just ask for military backup, which he didn't do. He needs to discuss something important, I guess—but what could have come up so suddenly? I doubt it's the Council pressuring him, because Gaara's real good at deflecting them…" He sure was. Naruto wished he was half as good as Gaara at dealing with his own council. "…But it's not like Gaara to ask for something scandalous and controversial anyway, so whatever it is, it must be…really, really, really bad," Shikamaru finished.

Shikamaru and Naruto looked at each other, both of them now supremely worried for the short little redhead who was the Kazekage. "Fuck," they both swore, almost at the exact time. It was almost funny.

Naruto picked the letter up from his desk again. "Discuss something, huh…? What kind of S-Class situation doesn't involve fighting?" He looked at Gaara's signature once more and remembered something. "And Shikamaru, look at this…"

Naruto flattened the paper on the table and Shikamaru leant down to observe it. The blonde Hokage pointed at Gaara's scrawled name. "Look! The loop thingy in his 'S' is too small, the letters in 'Sabaku' are all sorta running together, and the way he wrote 'Gaara' looks like his pen was shakin' or somethin'."

Shikamaru's normally bored, brown eyes widened marginally as Naruto pointed this out. To an outsider, the barely noticeable features of Gaara's signature would seem so insignificant so as to be laughed about, but Shikamaru knew his brother-in-law—if anyone was meticulous, it was Gaara. A single grain of sand out of place, the slightest wavering of his hands, could mean life or death with the Kazekage, so much so that even oblivious _Naruto_ , of all people, noticed the apparent quivering in Gaara's signature.

Finally, Shikamaru pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why is it always Suna?" he echoed Naruto. "Why is it always _Gaara_ , dammit? Some troublesome little brother he is…"

Naruto suddenly gasped and shot up from his chair. "He couldn't be sick, could he? Gaara looked really skinny and pale the last few days we saw him…" Naruto was bound to worry, considering how much he listened to Temari consternate about how Gaara never took care of his own health.

"Naruto, Gaara is _always_ skinny and pale," Shikamaru countered. "Do you remember the first time we met him? I'd never seen a more sickly-looking kid. Who knew he'd be such a…such a…" Shikamaru struggled with his words. "…fighter?"

"Gaara's not invincible, ya know! I mean, he _died_ once before!" The memory brought actual tears to Naruto's eyes, but he fought them back. "And I heard that after he came back _from the freaking dead_ , he didn't even take a single day's break—and have you heard, even though he doesn't have Shukaku now he _still_ barely sleeps—"

"Naruto, Naruto—I know that. C'mon, I'm married to the little guy's big sister, so I know, okay? And trust me, I'm worried about him too. You know he's like a little brother to me. But—do you really think Gaara, of all people, would call a Five Kage Summit because he was fucking _sick_?"

"…Point taken," Naruto admitted. "Of course he wouldn't, unless he was…dying or something." Naruto and Shikamaru looked at each other in alarm. "Gaara couldn't be dying, Shikamaru, could he, could he?!"

"I don't know," a fraught voice replied, and Shikamaru and Naruto both whipped around to see a troubled-looking Temari standing at the doorway of the Hokage Office.

"Temari," Shikamaru acknowledged his wife, walking towards her meaningfully. For a moment, Naruto thought he was going to pull the woman into an embrace (as he himself always did when he saw his Hinata), but then remembered that the Naras were the least touchy-feely of the couples he knew. Shikamaru merely stopped when he was nose-to-nose with Temari and looked down into her intense teal eyes, sensing the disturbance within them. "What are you doing here?" he asked her softly.

"I got a letter from Gaara," Temari replied her husband.

"Are you serious? Let me see it! I got a letter from Gaara too! I'm worried!" Naruto cried.

"So I've heard—about your letter." Temari had overheard Shikamaru's and Naruto's conversation. "And I'll have you know, I don't go around showing _outsiders_ letters from my little brother. A letter from him is very _personal_ for me," Temari sniped, turning her nose up and giving Naruto her best arrogant look—which was very good. Despite this, she still took out a folded piece of paper from her purple shinobi vest and placed it on Naruto's desk.

Naruto's heart sped up even further, and his mouth turned dry, when he absorbed Gaara's message to his older sister, which was, indeed, much more personal.

 _Dear Temari—_

 _Perhaps, the time for you to do your duty as a shinobi of Sunagakure is drawing near. As the Kazekage of the village, I need my best kunoichi._

 _But I also need my older sister. Please come._

 _Gaara_

"Gaara never asks favors from me," Temari muttered before Naruto could respond. "I wish he did, I wish…but now that he finally has, I don't know—how to think…I'm so worried, Naruto…" she admitted, biting her lip.

"Why is he always so vague…?" Naruto wondered aloud. "What does mean—he needs you? Couldn't he have said what the problem was? Suna needs you…? Does he want you to go back to Sunagakure or something? What if it's…permanent?! What would you—" he looked at Shikamaru—"and Shikadai do! …And look, his handwriting is even shakier in this letter! There's…even a tiny ink splotch over there! Gaara _never_ leaves ink splotches! He's real careful, ya know! Holy shit, things must be…really bad. Really bad…Gaara never asks for anything. Whatever he needs must be really bad. What if Gaara's in trouble? Like, big trouble? He never asks for anything—"

"Yes, we get it, Naruto," Shikamaru cut Naruto off exasperatedly.

"I'm not overreacting!" the blonde Hokage cried, even though no one had accused him of doing so. "I can't—Gaara is really is important to me, ya know…! He's the only one left who…still understands…it's my job as a comrade and…his friend to make sure…nothing-!"

"Naruto," Temari interrupted. "Gaara is really important to us too. _We know_. And…thank you."

Naruto got up resolutely. "Fuck three days," he announced. "We're heading to Sunagakure now!" Because of improved road technology from the recent years, the trip to Sunagakure from Konoha now only took about a day at the longest.

"Not so fast, you brat," a new voice growled.

Naruto, Shikamaru, and Temari all turned to acknowledge the newcomer, and were surprised to find the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, standing there with a serious look on her face. The face she wore when she was about to undertake a serious medical operation.

"Grandma Tsunade, now's not the time!" Naruto yelped. "I'm actually very busy with busy Hokage business, ya know! And no, I don't have any extra sake, so you can turn around and go bother Kakashi-sensei instead!"

Tsunade's eye twitched violently at Naruto's rudeness. She stalked up to Naruto and glared at him, causing the blonde man to cower a bit as he remembered her scariness. "I don't want your sake, brat, you always buy the cheapest kinds and they taste the worst." Still, Naruto didn't miss Tsunade's cursory glance around the room—whether she was aware of it or not, she was subtly examining his office for a secret stash. "I'm here because I'm going with you."

Naruto looked at Tsunade blankly and dumbly. "Go with me? Where?"

Tsunade smacked her own forehead with one hand and Naruto with the other. "Sunagakure, _idiot_."

"You wanna go see Gaara too?" Naruto asked. "Hey, that might be a good idea! I think Gaara might be sick, Granny! You can help, right, right?"

Tsunade pointedly ignored the name Naruto had just called her. She looked at Naruto, then at Shikamaru and Temari, pointedly. "I think that might very much be the case. I got a letter from the Suna brat, as well."

Temari's eyes boggled. "He wrote a letter to _you_?"

Tsunade looked at the Suna kunoichi curiously. "You sound…surprised. I am a former colleague of his, after all, and one of high rank, too. What's wrong with me getting a letter from him?"

"Nothing's wrong, per say," Temari replied, "but understand, Lady Hokage, that I know my little brother and it's not a habit of his to go about collecting pen pals." Worry was evident on the edge of Temari's voice.

Tsunade's amber eyes softened. "I understand," she assured Temari.

"Let me see the damn letter!" Naruto screeched. Tsunade sighed and handed a piece of paper to Naruto, who laid it flat on his desk so that Shikamaru and Temari could see it as well.

 _Dear Lady Tsunade—_

 _My shame has subdued my audacity to the point where I dare not ask of your wellness and 'how you are doing'. I wish to write of assurance, but I hate to write lies. The fact of the matter is that I am, once again, being a selfish man, for I write to you today not out of assurance but out of need._

 _I submit this request to you as a friend, and should you find it in yourself to help a friend in need, despite the fact that he shall be forever indebted to you in ways he cannot pay, I should like to see you in Sunagakure at earliest convenience, preferably before the next 72 hours. Selfishly, I need your power, but as a friend, I need our bonds of trust._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Sabaku no Gaara_

"That is…one hell of a letter, if it came from Gaara," Shikamaru said in awe after several long minutes of silence, in which everyone had stared at the letter in disbelief.

"I've learned over the years that the Kazekage can be just as stubborn as our Naruto-brat here," Tsunade said, shaking her head. "And if there's one thing he absolutely refuses to change it's blaming himself for everything. I can't even feel mad at him for asking me to go to Suna out of the blue because with the way he worded it, I'd feel bad for feeling mad!"

"That's our Gaara for you," Temari tried to say humorously, but her voice came out as a whisper.

"Dammit!" Naruto screamed. "Another damn vague letter! What the hell is up with Gaara? What's wrong with asking a favor from a friend? He says it like it's the end of the world or something! And what did he mean, Granny, that he needs your power? Does he mean your medical stuff?" Blood drained from Naruto's face and he paled. "Granny Tsunade, Gaara really _is_ sick, isn't he? Promise you'll fix him, Granny, promise!"

"Naruto, I don't know what's wrong with the Kazekage yet. It's unlikely, but he might not even be sick at all. But—" she added sharply, seeing that Naruto was about to interrupt, "whatever it is he needs, I will try my best. Believe it or not…I also…care about the kid. _Unlike someone I know_ , he's a good kid."

"Thank you, Granny! You're the best!" Naruto startled the former Hokage when he pulled her into a bone-crushing hug and smooched her messily on the cheek. She made a face of disgust.

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go! Gaara needs us!"

Temari mustered up a smirk. "If I remember correctly, Gaara explicitly said he needed me and Lady Hokage—but he didn't say anything about needing _you_ , did he?"

"Bullshit!" Naruto cried. "Gaara'll always need me; I'm his best friend, ya know!" He whipped out his own letter from Gaara—the one addressed to all the "esteemed Kage". "Besides, he implicitly said he needed me here, didn't he say he 'requires my immediate attention'—huh?"

Naruto suddenly stopped his little rant and squinted at the back of the letter, leaving the four of them in the room in an awkward silence.

"Naruto…?" Shikamaru ventured after a silence a little too long to be normal for the blonde Hokage. "What's up…?"

"I got a letter from Gaara too," Naruto said quietly. He slowly showed Shikamaru, Temari, and Tsunade the backside of Gaara's letter, on which was the shortest message of all of them.

"His—handwriting—" Temari choked out. It was still neat, but for Gaara's standards, the letters were jagged and frantic.

 _Dear Naruto—_

 _You are my strength, my motivation, my inspiration. You are the one who saved me, so can you forgive me for my doubt? Show me the light again, Naruto, so that I can be sure I will remember what it looks like. I need my savior and my friend. But most of all, I need you, Naruto. Forgive me for needing so much more than I deserve_.

* * *

They traveled with discipline and in formation: Konoha's Seventh Hokage led them at their head, and the Fifth Hokage of the same village tailed them. Shikamaru Nara and Temari travelled in between them, side by side, completing the their diamond-shaped squad.

They had travelled along the Konoha-Suna road and were now well on their way in the Wind Country. The sun hung low in the sky, a blistering inferno in the empty desert. Despite the scorching, uncomfortable weather, all four of them were using their chakra to run swiftly along their path. Given the timeline of the upcoming Kage Summit in Suna, they could afford to walk and get to their destination with plenty of time, but none of them wanted to pay the price of putting off seeing Gaara for any extra amount of time, even a few hours. Naruto leapt with particularly eager bursts of energy.

Tsunade despised the sweating and the feeling of her clothing sticking to her skin on a mucky day in the summer of humid Konoha. Nevertheless, as she travelled through the Wind Country, she found herself missing the feeling of sweat—here, in the desert, the thick, dusty, arid air seemed to envelop her entire body and gradually broil and burn every cell of her skin. The slightest bristle of the wind was a sharp whiplash of stinging scorching heat.

"Dammit," she swore, trying to remember her last visit to the Wind Country. "It's been a long time since I've been out in this godforsaken weather—and I don't regret it one bit. The Kazekage brat better have a good reason for dragging all of us out here."

Half-hearted huffs and grunts replied Tsunade's statement—but nothing more, much to her surprise. Not that she expected the lazy Shikamaru to take the effort to reply her—and Tsunade didn't actually know Temari personally enough to deem her lack of response normal or abnormal. But Naruto—

The Number One Hyperactive Ninja. Her bubbly, carefree, obnoxious Naruto, her loudmouthed, annoying Naruto—appeared to have not even heard her. _He_ was supposed to be the one complaining about the weather, not _her_. But Tsunade could tell, even from her position behind Naruto, that all of his wild, unbridled passion was focused on leaping forward toward his redheaded friend in Suna, farther and farther, faster and faster. She watched his hands curl into tight fists, and Tsunade wondered whether he'd clenched his fists twenty years ago, too.

In due time, as they drew nearer and nearer to Sunagakure, the four of them started noticing changes to the landscape. The well-paved road that led to Suna was gradually disappearing into the sand—as if a ginormous amount of the brown grains had been dumped upon it, as if it were being swallowed by the desert. Although the road ran straight through the open desert, a jutsu had been placed on it to keep it clear and clean of the pesky desert sand. Only the worst of sandstorms could bury the road in sand as it now was. All four of them frowned at this, but continued travelling, assuming that whatever had happened had to do with why they were all heading to Sunagakure now, and that Gaara would be able to supply them with answers.

It was without warning that Naruto abruptly stopped, causing Shikamaru to barrel right into him and Temari to yelp as she skidded off to the side as she attempted to avoid them. The two men fell in a heap on the sand, and Tsunade, thankfully, had been far enough behind them to avoid becoming the third domino.

"Geez, Naruto, give me a warning if you're gonna just stop out of the blue," Shikamaru reprimanded, the exasperation bleeding clearly through his voice.

"Not my fault you weren't watching where you're going!" Naruto defended, quickly getting up and brushing himself off, Shikamaru doing the same at a much slower pace while grumbling.

"Why'd you stop anyway? You're the one who was so eager about getting to Gaara A.S.A.P.," Shikamaru jabbed, although he personally was equally as eager.

Tsunade wondered the same thing, and when Naruto pointed at a point in the distance, she noticed that Temari was already staring at the same direction, her brows weighed down by a heavy frown. "It's G—" she began—

"Look at that giant pyramid thingy!" Naruto interrupted. Tsunade looked and immediately recognized it—she _had_ fought alongside the young Kazekage before, after all. "What's it doing in the middle of the desert? It looks awesome!" He made a funny face. "Hey, wouldn't it be weird if Suna put their past Kazekages in those things? Like mummified them or something—"

"Your imagination deserves a reward, Naruto," Tsunade drawled, rolling her eyes. "Don't tell me you don't recognize that." Naruto's blank look made Tsunade sigh. "That's the Kazekage's Grand Sand Mausoleum."

Realization seemed to dawn Naruto's eyes. "OHhhhhh," he said, "Gaara's jutsus always looked weird. Hey, if that's Gaara's jutsu then we need to go check it out! Maybe he's there!"

With a burst of enthusiasm, Naruto suddenly sprinted forward at full speed, leaving a dust cloud in his wake. Shikamaru, Temari, and Tsunade were left behind, bemused and annoyed. They immediately began to catch up with the energetic Hokage. Tsunade and Shikamaru both looked at Temari when she said, worriedly, "The best use for Gaara's Sand Mausoleum is to trap and seal things..." She didn't comment more, looking deep in thought.

They only caught up with the Hokage at the foot of the pyramid. Naruto was looking at it with a contemplative face, and as Temari neared, she noticed that her assumptions had been correct; about twenty sealing tags had been strategically placed all over the structure.

"Metallic sand," Shikamaru observed, slightly out of breath. True enough, the pyramid seemed to have been constructed with a mixture of normal sand and a shiny, metallic substance.

"That's Gaara's kekkai genkai, isn't it?" Tsunade inquired. She'd never witnessed the Kazekage use is sparkling metallic sand before, because he'd used only regular earth back when he was a teenager.

"Yes..." Temari confirmed. "Gaara has always been able to control sand, but he also inherited the Magnet Release from Father. That's why he can also use the metal sand...but he rarely ever does. He sticks to his normal sand unless things start getting out of hand."

"Gaara's not here," Naruto piped up, commenting for the first time. "Let's just get to Sunagakure and get some answers from him." He turned around, preparing to take off again, when a rustling sound from behind him stopped him.

Naruto faced the pyramid again and his blue eyes widened at the sight of grains of sand swirling near the tip of the triangular structure, congesting into a void of violent sand.

Several moments later, the sand cleared away abruptly, leaving not a single swirling grain in the air. Instead, something distinctly crimson stood in its place at the top of the pyramid. The figure was facing away from them.

"SABAKU NO GAARA!" Naruto screamed. He channeled chakra to his feet and ran up the side of the pyramid. He swung his fist at his friend. "THAT'S FOR MAKING US ALL WORRY, BELIEVE IT!"

Naruto's punch had only halfway completed its journey towards Gaara's face when the Kazekage's faithful absolute defense had already erected a wall of sand between the two Kage. Nevertheless, Naruto seemed to have expected it—he didn't even flinch as his bare knuckles came in contact with the rough surface of the shield, and he didn't bat an eye when he withdrew his bleeding hand. Perhaps he'd only wanted to make a point.

Naruto growled, seething, at the wall of sand separating him from Gaara. After several moments, Gaara's sand seemed to have ascertained that there was no longer any present threat, and the wall began to recede back into the Kazekage's gourd. Gaara reappeared in Naruto's vision, this time, facing him.

"You—" Naruto began, but his jaw locked and he stopped short when he took a good look at his friend. "Gaara…" he whispered.

The look in Gaara's eyes was disconcerting. Gaara's eyes had always burned so intensely—once upon a time, with the inferno of a psychopath, and later, with the fires of a strong, resolved leader. Glowed with warmth and love. But now—how dim the light in those pale green eyes were! The fire still burned, but seemed to flicker in and out of existence, and so faint was the light that Naruto could no longer tell with _what_ Gaara's eyes were burning. Naruto wanted to bring that familiar fire back into Gaara's eyes—but Gaara seemed so distant. Gaara was right in front of him, yet seemed far away and lost. Naruto suddenly felt like he was looking down at a vulnerable child, even though he and Gaara were almost the same height, save a few inches' difference.

Gaara blinked at Naruto, an action that actually surprised the Hokage and caused him to blink in response. Naruto observed the internal battle in Gaara's eyes and noted that the man seemed to be bringing himself out of a daze and had only just noticed Naruto's presence.

"Naruto…Uzumaki," Gaara acknowledged, sounding just as distant as he looked. Gaara always greeted Naruto by both his first and last name. Naruto locked his gaze with Gaara' eyes, but felt as if the shorter man wasn't really looking at him at all.

Naruto gripped Gaara by the shoulders firmly. "Gaara, what's—"

"Naruto Uzumaki, it's been a while…" Gaara cut him off.

"Yeah, it's been—wait, _what_? Gaara, you—hell, we only saw each other, like, two days ago! Five Kage Summit, remember? What's with you?"

"…since they've looked at me with fear in their eyes…"

Naruto realized that Gaara was talking about something else entirely, and then he gulped upon realizing what Gaara had just said.

"I've never felt fear before…not for myself, anyway…I felt many things towards myself before—hatred, discontent…but never fear. So many people fear 'Gaara'."

"Gaara, will you get over that? It was ages ago—"

"Yes. Yes, it's been a while," Gaara repeated. "They looked at me like that twenty years ago. They looked at me like that yesterday."

" _What_ —"

"What is time, really? A beginning and an end? Or is it a circle? Perhaps there are a rebirths along the way…for I think I finally understand…what it's like to be afraid of…me."

"What are you talking about, Gaara? No one's _afraid_ of you—"

"I am."

" _What_?" Naruto gaped, truly shocked dumb for several moments. He recovered and scowled at his strange friend. "Well, you know what? I don't care! _I'm_ not afraid of you, little guy, and if I have to beat your head out of the gutter I'll do it! Believe it!" Naruto struck the "Nice Guy" pose.

Gaara seemed to regard him coolly, and Naruto's bold thumbs-up faltered.

"You once looked at me with fear in your eyes, Naruto Uzumaki…time is a circle, and what is the time? Ah, it is…'almost'."

Before Naruto had the chance to respond, Gaara had turned away, leaving the Hokage to stare at a head of blood-red hair fluttering forlornly in the wind.

But Naruto wasn't Naruto for nothing. As they travelled the last leg of the journey to Sunagakure on Gaara's Desert Suspension, Naruto succeeded in distracting himself by talking his own ears off. He commented on how convenient Gaara's Desert Suspension was, how Gaara never had to walk anywhere because he could just float around on his sand, and how Gaara ought to be careful because if he used his Desert Suspension too much, he was bound to get lazy like his brother-in-law (Shikamaru sent Naruto a glare at this), or worse, Gaara might completely forget how to walk at all because he was always sitting around on his sand, and not walking was bound to be a disaster for a guy like Gaara who never did any physical exercise or did any taijutsu, because he was bound to get fat that way, and "seriously, Gaara, girls don't dig fat guys—"

"How about Karui?" Temari interrupted.

"—and you seriously need to get laid, my friend, it'll probably loosen you up some, believe it! Besides, I can't believe all of us are in our thirties and I still have a virgin friend—"

"Welcome to Sunagakure," Gaara cut in blandly, discouraging the notion that he'd heard even a single word of what Naruto had just said. Fortunately for the three other pairs of ears privy to the conversation, Gaara's voice was enough to break the relentless thread of the Hokage's inquiries regarding the Kazekage's sex life (though Tsunade was admittedly a _teeny_ bit curious).

As they began their descent, Naruto looked down and saw the civilization rising out of the sand. It was always bizarre, seeing Sunagakure like this, especially when approaching it while airborne. It was different from Konoha, which was grand and awe-inspiring when viewed from any and all angles, and which was snugly seated on its throne of trees and leaves. Suna looked like the conception of an imaginative child's sandbox, ironically placed in the middle of the most unloving and unforgiving terrain on Earth, constructed of love—and buckets.

Their landed softly just outside of Sunagakure's tall outer walls, where a brown-haired kunoichi looked to be waiting to receive them. She bowed and approached them, and Naruto recognized her soon thereafter.

"Matsuri," Gaara acknowledged.

"Lord Gaara!" the kunoichi greeted in return, smiling at her beloved Kazekage, although her smile didn't seem to quite reach her eyes. "I'll alert the Council of the Hokage's arrival."

"That would be good," Gaara replied. "I'll escort the Hokage's party myself."

"All right, Lord Gaara," Matsuri nodded. "And, um…is there anything else you…need?"

"Not presently," Gaara answered, before adding, "and Matsuri…thank you."

Matsuri looked up at Gaara in mild surprise. "Lord Gaara…" She cleared her throat, then looked up at her sensei with burning eyes. "Always, Gaara-sensei. Trust me."

She nodded solemnly at the Konoha party, then was off.

"Hey, that was Matsuri!" Naruto exclaimed after a moment. "What was she doing here? Usually it's ANBU who are out here to receive us."

Gaara slowly turned to look at Naruto, and the Hokage shuddered when he saw the look in the Kazekage's eyes. They no longer swam with vulnerability—instead, they looked dead. Naruto wondered if Gaara's eyes would have looked this way if they'd been open after his abduction by the Akatsuki twenty years ago.

Gaara turned wordlessly and began walking through the narrow entrance into Sunagakure. Naruto gave up hope that Gaara was going to answer him, and, along with Shikamaru, Temari, and Tsunade followed the Kazekage into the village.

But then Gaara spoke in a frighteningly nonchalant voice. "The ANBU of Sunagakure…would much rather serve a Kazekage to whom they feel loyalty."

Naruto quickly caught up to Gaara so that they were walking side by side. "The fuck are you prattling about? Everyone in Sunagakure freaking _loves_ you." He was ignored.

Naruto huffed and walked on ahead of Gaara—despite the weirdness going all around today, the Hokage was still rather excited to see his second favorite village in the whole world (the first being Konoha, _duh_ ). Behind their tough exteriors, Suna people had a wicked sense of humor. Crack those hard shells of theirs, and they were _nuts_. Naruto loved them. Besides, the amount of fanfare the Seventh Hokage received in the desert city was actually comparable to that of his own.

The narrow passageway grew brighter as they approached the other side. "Hellooooo, Sunagakure!" Naruto greeted heartily.

The wind blew, the sand tossed, and there was silence.

Naruto knew from experience that Suna people were tough nuts to crack—take the Sand Siblings, for example!—so it shocked him to see a crowd of them before him now, frozen in place and raw. The fear in their eyes completely unconcealed. Naruto had to hold back his gasp.

Growing up as a jinchuuriki meant that Naruto had been scrutinized by those fearful eyes too many times too many—but the fear of the villagers was mostly drowned by hatred, since nobody viewed Naruto as a real threat. Shouts and jeers always accompanied the stares, and each venomous utterance had been like a painful stab to Naruto's heart.

But here, nothing concealed those fearful eyes—not even hatred. Instead, it was the fear that drowned the hatred, and the villagers spoke louder with their unspoken words and silence.

Naruto suddenly realized that he preferred the hurtful shouting to _this_. The fear and the silence made the loneliness and isolation ten times as pronounced. And then Naruto realized that the Suna villagers' gaze was not being directed _at_ him but rather, at someone _behind_ him, and the Hokage felt like throwing up right then and there.

" _They looked at me like that yesterday._ " They're looking at you like that _today_.

Gaara approached with his mask of calm perfectly in place. He looked no less like the Kazekage than he had for the past twenty years. He walked past a still-stunned Naruto and the crowd of villagers immediately recoiled, attempting to put as much distance between themselves and their leader as possible. Said leader did not even outwardly acknowledge their presence.

Temari, Shikamaru, and Tsunade were extremely shocked, and exchanged looks with Naruto. The latter cast another cursory glance over the frozen crowd, but none of them paid him any attention, their cautious eyes following the Kazekage like magnets. Naruto quickly caught up with the solitary redhead man and hissed into his ear, " _What_ is going on here, Gaara? Why do they all…" _fear you again?_ "Why are they all acting like this?"

Gaara shrugged. "They see, and then they act. That is the truth of matters."

They continued to walk through the city, and Naruto couldn't help but compare the way that their journey affected the multitudes of villagers to a wave of shock and fear. The eyes weren't even looking at _him_ , and yet Naruto couldn't stand it. How did Gaara look so stoic in a time like this? The blonde man tugged on the redhead's red robes. "C'mon, Gaara…let's just...let's all just use the Body Flicker Technique and get to the Kazekage Compound." Naruto wasn't the type to run away—normally, by now, he would have lashed out at those treating him so unfairly. But the Suna villagers were just staring—not really doing anything—and at Gaara, not at him, not to mention that the Hokage wasn't in his own village. He didn't know what had happened, but he didn't think he could stand Gaara doing nothing under the villagers' withering gaze any longer. "We can discuss this, and fix this, okay?" the Hokage urged. "For now let's just get outta here. Please?"

Gaara answered in a clearly audible voice that caused those around him to shrink into the walls even further. "What kind of Kazekage am I if I can't even walk through the streets of my own village?"

Temari caught up with them. Her distress was painted clearly on her face—which was a tad surprising, seeing as the fierce woman always hid vulnerable emotions so well. "I—I agree with Naruto, Gaara. I understand what you mean about—I mean, this is our own village after all, but—but, please, just this time, let's get out of here quickly and talk about this, please? Now doesn't seem like a good time to—expose ourselves in public, for whatever reason I don't know—so please? For—us, Gaara?"

Gaara's pale green gaze regarded Temari blankly. He answered, "You know the way to the Kazekage Tower. You could adequately escort the Hokage and his party there ahead of time if you feel uncomfortable. I will simply have to rejoin you in a few extra minutes' time."

"No—no Gaara I meant together—" Temari tried to protest, but the Kazekage had already proceeded away.

The five of them turned the corner, muting the village in their wake, when suddenly, there was a shuffle and a _whiz_. Gaara didn't react when a stone suddenly came hurling out of the crowd, directly towards the Kazekage's face.

Tsunade's face contorted with complete surprise at the display of hostility; she'd heard of, but never experienced, anything quite like this before. Shikamaru's eyes widened and his fingers threaded themselves into the Rat seal in case he needed to use his shadow; Temari instinctively reached for the fan strapped to her back.

But Gaara's sand shield hadn't even the chance to react when Naruto's fist slammed into the rock, crushing it into pieces. The Hokage's face contorted with rage and he exploded.

"WHO DID THAT?" Naruto screamed accusingly. The crowd backed up even further and hushed murmurs coursed through it. "C'MON, SHOW YOUR FACE! IF YOU HAD THE GALL TO DO THAT IT SHOULDN'T BE ANY PROBLEM!" Naruto thrusted the crushed remnants of the rock to the floor. "IF YOU WANT TO FIGHT YOUR KAZEKAGE SO BADLY, COME OUT HERE AND FACE HIM LIKE A _MAN_!"

Naruto didn't really expect anybody to come forth, so he was in for a surprise when a young child suddenly broke himself free from the crowd. "No—Roku, come back here!" a woman, presumably his mother, pleaded, but the child ignored her, instead rushing determinedly to face, as Naruto had recommended, the Kazekage.

Gaara regarded Roku coolly; his head was still raised, so only his eyes flickered downward to watch the child. The boy trembled and fumed at the same time.

Naruto paled; children were always the worst opponents. No matter what you did—ignored them, beat them up, scolded them, _killed_ them—you could never win.

The child then reached into his robes and pulled out—a teddy bear? Naruto, Temari, Shikamaru, and Tsunade all watched, bemused. The child growled and glared at Gaara. "I thought you were a nice Kazekage, but my mommy told me you're a horrible monster," the little boy spat venomously. "You lied to all of us! You're a liar!" Tears threatened to spill from the boy's eyes, but he blinked furiously, refusing to cry in front of the Kazekage. "I don't want your stupid presents! I don't want a gift from a _monster_!" the boy cried, throwing, with extra force, the teddy bear in his hands towards the ground. Naruto cringed. The teddy was too adorable to deserve that kind of treatment.

But Gaara's gourd suddenly uncorked itself and the sand quickly caught the soft toy before it could make harsh contact with the ground. The sand cradled the bear softly before delivering it into the Kazekage's hands. Gaara did not break eye contact with the boy.

Roku trembled even further at the sight of Gaara's deadly sand, and he began backing away slowly. When he had deemed his distance safe enough, he whipped around and broke off in a run. "Monster!" he yelled a final time over his shoulder.

Gaara continued staring at the spot the boy had just left. After a long pause, he said, "Very well," as if Roku were standing before him.

Naruto willed himself not to cry—he'd hardly ever seen anything so cruel. He opened his mouth to speak, but Gaara beat him to it. With chillingly expressionless eyes, the Kazekage held the bear out to Naruto. "Would you accept a gift from a monster?"

"Gimme that!" Naruto shouted, snatching the teddy from Gaara's hands. "And you are NOT a monster, Gaara—" Gaara had already turned away.

By the time their party of five reached the Kazekage Compound, Naruto was ready to throwing a million-and-one rocks at Gaara just to crack that stubborn façade. Naruto had pestered the redhead relentlessly with questions, but Gaara resisted even more relentlessly. The silence of his answers grew louder and louder each time.

"Gaaaaa. Raaaaa. For the four thousand gazillionth time—"

"These are your rooms," Gaara swiftly interrupted, gesturing to several guest rooms along the hallway. "Lady Tsunade can stay here, Naruto can stay here, and Shikamaru and Temari can stay in this one. Unless you'd rather sleep separately, of course?"

"Together is fine," Shikamaru answered briskly, feeling awkward.

"Very well," Gaara nodded. "Please make yourselves comfortable. I expect you'd like to rest after your journey here."

"GAARA!" Naruto screamed this time.

Gaara's eyes met Naruto's. "Yes?"

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Gaara blinked. "As Kazekage, it is my duty to make sure my foreign guests are comfortably accommodated."

"To hell with that! It's just US! And we came here to _talk_ , Gaara! There's clearly some serious issues going on! So you're gonna talk, whether you like it or not! Now!"

It was clear that the Kazekage remained unconvinced, and that he didn't like it, because he didn't "talk, now."

Naruto made a noise of exasperation and flailed his arms. "You know what? Just forget it. If you wanna be an ungrateful bastard, then GO AHEAD. In case you've forgotten, I'M the HOKAGE, and like hell I need to be escorted to my room for bed. I'm going out!"

Tossing his robes for dramatic effect, Naruto stormed out of the hallway. He passed by Shikamaru's bedroom on the way.

"Hey, where're you going?" the lazy man asked.

"Oh, just out. To do a little recon," Naruto replied.

Temari suddenly appeared right beside her husband. Naruto's heart clenched at the sight of her worry-riddled face. "Do you need us to come with?" the kunoichi asked.

"Nah, it's all right," Naruto replied, donning a soft smile. "You guys just do whatever you want. You deserve it. But Shikamaru, if you find any free time, feel free to kick that skinny stubborn ass of your brother-in-law's for me."

Shikamaru's face colored, and all too quickly, he grabbed Temari's arm and started closing the door. "Nope, sorry, Lord Hokage. Hokage's assistants and Sand ambassadors rarely have any spare time. We'll be uh—busy."

Naruto left the Kazekage building and immediately donned a henge for disguise. He was still blonde-haired and blue-eyed, but just without Naruto Uzumaki's marked features. His cheeks were paler and unwhiskered, his hair dirtier blonde, his blue eyes dimmer, and his loud orange clothes more subdued. He didn't know Suna's customs well enough to blend in as one of their own, so the symbol on his forehead protector still held Konoha's triangle and swirl.

He wandered about the village, mingling among its people in hopes of picking up some information about their weird behavior, stopping only a couple times for ramen. However, without Gaara's presence, the Suna villagers acted very much normal—a little less outgoing and boisterous, but not too far from the usual.

Naruto was perplexed.

He was still wandering when the sun dipped beneath the horizon, and, feeling weary, decided to patron a modest looking bar. A steady hum of conversation stirred inside the dimly-lit tenement, and Naruto made his way to the counter without attracting much attention.

The bartender was a middle-aged, plain-loooking man with brown hair and brown eyes. "What can I getcha?" he asked, his accent reminding Naruto of Kankuro's.

"Just a sake. Warm, please."

"Sure."

The bartender left to go get his drink, leaving Naruto at the counter with other patrons of the bar. He listened to them talk, hoping to glean a bit of information, when—

"Hey, aren't you from Konoha?" a Suna shinobi asked, pointing at his forehead protector.

"Yeah, sure am," Naruto replied carefully.

"What're you doing in Suna?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "Mission," he answered simply.

The bartender returned and set Naruto's sake down on the table. "Thanks," Naruto said, bringing the cup to his lips, stopping halfway when he realized that the bar had fallen silent. "Um…guys, I know that I'm fantastically handsome and all, but that doesn't mean you should stare like that."

The bartender's voice startled him. "Get out of here," he commanded lowly.

Naruto's eyebrows shot up. "Excuse me?"

"You shouldn't be here," the man persisted.

Naruto put his cup down loudly and stood up. "What? Are you kicking me out 'cause I'm from Konoha?"

The man actually looked surprised at the accusation. "What—oh, no. Not of the bar premises. I mean you shouldn't be in Suna."

"Why not?" Naruto asked, bewildered.

"It's dangerous."

"He's right, you know," a fellow patron piped in from Naruto's left. He gestured for the blonde man to sit down, and cautiously, Naruto did. "I'll be packin' my bags and leavin' with m'wifey and kids by th'end o' the week."

"Where will you go?"

"Anywhere," the patron replied. "Anywhere but Suna."

"Does…this have anything to do with the Kazekage?"

Silence reigned in again for several moments. Then—" _Everything_ always has something to do with the Kazekage." The voice sounded bitter.

"I thought Gaa—I mean, Lord Kazekage was a great guy," Naruto ventured, biting his lip. "I mean, even in Konoha he's pretty popular."

"The Kazekage—a great guy?" This time, it was a woman's voice. She chuckled. "Yeah, yeah, that's just what he wants you to think."

Naruto clenched his fists beneath the counter, willing himself to calm down. Now would be the worst of times to give himself away. "But what'd he do?"

Silence reigned for a third time that night, making Naruto impatient. The bartender was the one who finally answered. "Just get outta here as soon as ya can, kid. You're better off not knowing."

"What? But—"

The bartender shot him a look that said This Conversation Is Over, leaving Naruto slumped in defeat.

The Hokage trudged, exhausted, back to the Kazekage Compound, feeling dejected that he was nowhere closer to solving the mysterious circumstances than he had when he'd asked Gaara. "I shoulda asked Shika and Tem to come," he berated himself with a slight slur in his voice—he'd had one sake too many tonight. "They coulda figured it out." Silently, he slipped through the Kazekage Compound's winding hallways and was about turn onto the one where his room was situated, when he heard muffled voices speaking. He was going to opt to ignore them at first, but stopped when he recognized the gravelly male tenor. Quickly, he suppressed his chakra.

"…I hope I haven't disturbed you, Lady Tsunade," Gaara said.

"…Whatever." She sounded groggy.

"I've disturbed you. My apologies—I'll return at a later time—"

"No," Tsunade yawned forcefully. "I'm fine. What is it, Lord Kazekage?"

"…I asked you to come to Sunagakure for a reason, Lady Tsunade."

"Indeed you did. Would you care to enlighten me?"

"There are certain aspects…of my physical health and anatomy that I'd like you to examine."

This seemed to catch Tsunade's attention. "Lord Kazekage, we've been wondering…are you ill?"

There was a pause, and Naruto held his breath in anticipation for the answer. "I would rather hope not."

Naruto released his sigh, and Tsunade said, "After the war, I offered to do full-body examinations of all the Kage and you were the only one who adamantly said no, no, and no. Even Sakura tried to persuade you to no avail. What's changed?"

"…Circumstances," Gaara answered, in the vaguest possible way. "And my age."

"Your age—" Tsunade suddenly guffawed loudly, making Naruto jump. "Hahaha—Lord Kazekage, you couldn't possibly be—suggesting that—you're old?! You're Naruto's age! ...I certainly hope you weren't mocking me." Tsunade was sensitive about her age.

"Forgive me if it came across that way, I had no such intention," Gaara assured. "And you must understand that I am different from most humans, Lady Tsunade. When my father created me, longevity was not one of his concerns. To be honest, however, my physical health and lifespan is not my foremost concern. I have more reasons to worry about my mental capacities."

In a teasing tone, Tsunade joked, "Senility isn't that scary, trust me."

But joking with Gaara often had the effect of backfiring, especially when the man took it seriously. "Indeed, senility would be much preferred," Gaara said. "I have a history of severe mental illness, Lady Tsunade…psychosis and sociopathy."

"But you got over that a long time ago, didn't you? Why are you afraid of a relapse?"

Gaara paused. "Perhaps we should take this conversation elsewhere, Lady Tsunade, and I will be happy to fill you in. Unwelcome ears are often privy to conversations held in the hallway." Naruto gulped. Had Gaara caught him eavesdropping? He looked around for stray grains of sand, but found none—none that were visible, anyway.

"Oh! Oh, all right," Tsunade said, sounding surprised. There was the sound of shuffling and a door closing. "Let's go."

Naruto heard their footsteps and jumped—if they turned the corner, he would be discovered. Holding his breath, he waited—but fortunately, Gaara and Tsunade walked off in the opposite direction.

Naruto stood still until he couldn't hear their footsteps anymore, then quickly rushed to his own room and closed the door behind him. He released the long breath he didn't know he was holding, the blood thundering in his ears from the conversation he'd just overheard.

Naruto flopped down on the bed, and, noting the telephone on the drawer next to his bed, decided to give Hinata a quick phone call to calm his nerves. Unfortunately, his children were already in bed, and he couldn't wish them good night.

Hinata was just as perplexed as Naruto was after he explained everything to her, but her soft, soothing voice smoothed the tension in Naruto's muscles. Just before they hung up, Hinata sung him a lullaby in her sweet voice.

He closed his eyes and lay there in the bed for a long time. He shouldn't have called Hinata—the absence of her voice was now twice as painful.

He suddenly thought of Gaara. For how long had he gone to sleep on a cold bed, all alone?

 _Never_ , Naruto realized, although this was no relief. _Gaara never goes to bed._

Naruto remembered the villagers' harsh treatment of his friend today, and for the first time, he cried. Naruto had no history of mental illness, but that night, he was the one plagued with insomnia.

 _What was going on?_


End file.
